Explaining the Unexplainable
by INSANITY - BRILLIANCE
Summary: (Rewriting of IDDV.)Katherine considered herself to be a rational person. She believed in Science and its ability to explain away the unexplainable.When she came to Cross Academy she didn't know she would be recused by a blond, blue-eyed vampire and get dragged into a world of the paranormal where all she thought she knew is false and it all leads back to her and her blood.(AU-ish)
1. (1) Shadow Men

**A/N: All references to real places, people, and events are purely coincidental and should not be taken as factual. I do not own Vampire Knight or its characters, however, the plot and the OCs are all my own.**

 **This is a revamp of my original VK fanfiction, I Don't Date Vampires.**

 **EXPLAINING THE UNEXPLAINABLE  
CHAPTER ONE  
**" **Shadow Men"**

* * *

" _The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown."_

— _H.P. Lovecraft_

* * *

Katherine Taylor sat with her face turned towards the window. The light from outside bathing her a golden glow, reflecting off the blondes and sandy browns of her french pigtails. She had taken her hat and coat off after the heat in the train's cabin had become too much for that many layers and threw them into the empty chair beside her, leaving her in a long-sleeved shirt and navy cable-knit sweater with a thick wool scarf looped around her neck. The sweater was somewhat baggy on her slender frame, but it was difficult to discern whether it was the sweater itself that was too big or whether it was Katherine's figure that was too small. Judging by the size of her wrists alone, she could've almost passed as one of those needy metropolitan children that were sent out every summer to endowed camps to be fattened and sunned. Close up, either full-face or in profile, she was a surpassingly handsome looking girl. Her uncle Lucian (who was really only related in spirit and considered himself a connoisseur and admirer of particularly beautiful women) has often said that she looked like the lovechild of Audrey Hepburn and Ingrid Bergman. A more general and surely less penchant view was that her face had been barely saved from too-handsomeness, not to say gorgeousness, by the virtue of her ears being much pointier than normal giving her an almost pixie-ish appearance. Nonetheless, Katherine was vulnerable to the same variety of flippant confidence and usually specious appraisals that any legitimate art object is; and as such any one of a hundred everyday hazards—a cold, a headache, lack of sleep—could have defaced or roughened her bounteous good looks in a day or a second.

Currently, Katherine was looking a little worse for wear. Her head resting on the frosted window pane and slouching, almost uncomfortably, forward in her chair. She had a slightly queasy feeling in her stomach, motion sickness from the swaying of the train, and her face was pinched in a particularly ugly expression. In her lap, she was grasping firmly a small orange prescription bottle filled with nausea medication. She was trying rather unsuccessfully to hold out until the next stop so she could stand up and reach for her water bottle in the overhead compartment, standing up she found was worse than sitting, and she had immediately collapsed back in her seat when she had tried it. She kept her eyes focused on the ice-capped mountains on the horizon, ignoring as best as she could the blur of snow-covered trees whizzing past her.

If she wasn't feeling as dizzy as a sock in a dyer, Katherine would have been enjoying the winter scenery. The frosted trees were particularly beautiful with long thin icicles hanging from their branches, sunlight shining through them like crystals on a chandelier. The Annupuri Mountains were filled with an overabundance of curvy rail tracks and steep inclines and declines that had the train bouncing along more often than not. She wished she was back in the suite in Tokyo with her uncle drinking hot cider and watching 'Die Hard' on the forty-five inch flatscreen. This wasn't how she wanted to spend New Year's Eve, traveling from Tokyo to Niseko, in what was possibly the ricketiest train the world. If she had had her way she would've been feeling sick on an airplane to Sri Lanka with Lucian, but he had said it was too dangerous. The tensions between the military and the Tamil Tigers were rising to the point that any day now one side would break and the whole country could be in a revolution. Being a journalist, specifically a foreign correspondent, Lucian was asked to be on the front lines and report on the crisis. He typically didn't take such high-risk assignments, however, this was different it seemed and so he packed up his niece and enrolled her in a prestigious boarding school in northern Japan.

Cross Academy was supposed to be one the top international schools in the country, if not the world, and was nearly impossible to get into with a waiting list longer than most applicant's high school careers. It was the kind of place that only children of the extremely rich or affluent—politicians, business leaders, Hollywood stars—attended. Katherine shouldn't have even been in the top hundred, to not mention very top, of that list. She was transferring towards the end of the second year and in a school like that transfers during that time were not only uncommon but unheard of. Lucian it seemed had an in with the headmaster, Kaien Kurosu, and was able to admit her without much trouble. She recognized the opportunity she was being presented with, still, a part of her felt embitter towards how it came about and how easily Lucian had left her in the care of strangers.

Just then the intercom came on as the conductor announced that the train was arriving at Otaru. _Finally,_ she rejoiced as the trees turned into buildings and the train slowed down to a stop at an open platform. She waited until the feeling of nausea lessened, then standing up on the grey upholstered seat, she turned around and dug around in her black Jansport backpack for her unopened bottle of water. She found it quickly, sat back down, took out a couple pills and gulped them down with water. She placed her water in the cupholder of her armrest, then falling back in the chair, she closed her eyes and waited for the pills to take effect.

" _Sumimasen. Nihongo-o hanashimasu-ka?"_ Katherine opened her eyes and looked up to see an old Japanese woman standing in the aisle. She had thin grey hair cropped short around her ears and thick wrinkles around her eyes and mouth. She was wearing a long beige coat with a light pink 'Hello Kitty' scarf tied around her neck and caring an oversized handbag in her hands. Her brows were lifted in question as she regarded Katherine curiously. She wanted to know if she spoke Japanese.

" _Hai. Nihongo-ga sukoshi hanasemasu,"_ she nodded, then pulling the coat and hat off the seat beside her and offered it to the woman. The old lady took it with a smile and set her bag on the floor by her feet. She introduced herself as Hikari Akiyama and told Katherine that she was returning home from visiting her grandchildren in Otaru. Then she asked Katherine where she was headed. " _Niseko._ Cross Academy."

"Ah! You're a student," she spoke in very accented English. "That's a very prestigious school."

"You know it?" Katherine asked curiously.

"Of course," she said, "I was born and raised in Niseko and that school's been around since I was a little girl. Though it was run by a different organization back then. It's one of the top schools in the country, ya know? I never went, of course, my parents didn't have the money to send me so I attended a public institution in Otaru. But I remember always seeing the clock tower from my window. You must be exited?"

Katherine nodded halfheartedly. Then she made a face as the train jolted back into motion. Apparently, the pills hadn't kicked in yet.

" _Daijyōbu-desu-ka?"_ Mrs. Akiyama asked worriedly.

Katherine waved off her concern. " _Daijyōbu-desu. Watashi-wa kinbun-ga warui-desu."_ The woman placed her hand on the girl's forehead feeling for a temperature and Katherine had to correct her placing a hand on her stomach and miming the motions of the train.

She nodded. " _Wakarimashita."_ Then she reached down into her bag and pulled out a small wrapped candy and placed it in Katherine's hand. "Eat. _Shōga_ helps calm the stomach."

Katherine thanked her and popped the candy in her mouth. The strong spicy taste of ginger spread over her tongue. She waved her hand in front of her mouth as her eyes started to water. "Oh, that's hot!" The older woman laughed amused as Katherine reached for her bottle of water, taking generous sips.

"It's a bit strong," she agreed.

"More than a bit," Katherine said. "Where do you get those?"

"I make them. My grandchildren love them."

"How many grandchildren do you have?"

"Three," she grinned, then reached into her bag to pull out her coin purse and a small photograph she kept inside. She handed it to the girl, "That's my son and his wife," she pointed at the dark haired man and woman sitting on a picnic blanket with two little boys and a small baby girl, "and those are my three grandchildren."

" _Oba-san_ you have a lovely family." Katherine handed back the photograph.

"What about you? Do you have family in Japan? Your Japanese is excellent by the way! Did you study here before?" Mrs. Akiyama asked.

Katherine shook her head. "No. But I usually travel with my _Oji-san_ to this country a lot. He works for an international—How do you say newspaper? _Shimbun?_ "

"That's right," she nodded. " _Igirisu-no kata-desu-ka?"_

" _Ie, Amerika-jin-desu._ But I grew up all over Europe for the most part."

"Ah! My husband and I lived in the U.S. for a couple years."

"Oh, which part?"

"West coast in California, near the San Francisco Bay area. It's a lovely country," she said. "I would've loved to go back when my husband was alive. But it wouldn't be the same without him. We were married about forty years, ya know?"

"That's a long time," Katherine said.

She nodded looking a bit wistful. Then she stared out the window for a moment watching the sun in the sky. "Oh, I hope I can get home before sunset," she said worriedly. "I was supposed to catch an earlier train, but my grandkids—they wanted to go to the shrine. I should've just spent the night in Otaru and went home the next day."

Katherine raised her brows in question and glanced out the window. It was about four o'clock in the afternoon and the sun had been steadily moving towards the horizon. The girl turned her attention back to the old woman. "Why do you have to be home before sunset?" She asked curiously.

"You shouldn't travel at night," she told her. "Especially in this area."

"Why?"

Mrs. Akiyama gave her a speculative look, pursing her thin lips. Katherine felt like she was reprimanding her without words. As if the girl should've known exactly why one doesn't travel by night. Then she relaxed her face, leaned close to Katherine's ear and whispered almost conspiratorially, "It's not safe. People go missing at night in these parts."

Unconsciously the girl turned toward her. "They do?"

"Oh yes," she nodded, "It's been happening for years. Since I was a small child. _Oka-san_ used to tell me stories, terrible stories of these young girls that go missing—always young girls, you see—and then turn up months or years later completely torn apart like some animal ripped them up. I would be careful if I were you. You're exactly the kind of pretty girl that would be targeted."

"What rips them up?" Katherine asked.

"No one knows. It's probably a wolf—they roam around these parts—But _Oka-san_ used to say it was _yōkai._ "

"Demons?" Katherine was incredulous.

She nodded. "Ah, I know how that sounds. My mother never let any of us out after sunset and I too used to think that she was a superstitious old woman, and only trying to keep me away from my friends, none of them had such strict curfews," she said. "But I've since changed my mind on that. I've seen too many strange, unexplainable things living in that town."

"Like what?"

It seemed that the old lady was just waiting for Katherine to ask. She turned to her and gave her this bemused smile that sent a chill up the girl's spine. "Well," she began, "when I was about your age, maybe a bit older, I got invited to a party one night and I got it into my head that I was going to sneak out of the house and go. I made it to the party and nothing happened, so I figured that I was right and that _Oka-san_ was only trying to scare me. But on the way home, I was walking down one of the side streets and I heard a noise coming from one of the alleyways. Clanging like a bunch of rubbish bins being rattled about. It scared me at first, then I realized it was probably the stray dog that had been drifting around the neighborhood for years, scrounging around for some food. I had a small bundle of biscuits on me that I had taken from the party, so I thought I'd give some away. No harm done. But when I went down the alley something happened. I saw something—I don't know what it was, but it wasn't the dog—It was crouched in an alley and had a long sort of pale body like a man and not a man. If that makes any sense. It was far too skeletal and it's face—" She shuddered involuntarily. "It had these glowing red eyes and it made this horrible sound before it charged straight towards me."

The old woman paused, letting the tension build. Katherine's full attention was on her. "Then what happened?" She asked.

"What happened? Oh, it was the oddest thing," The old lady exclaimed. "I was standing there, frozen in fear to the point that I couldn't even speak much less run, and this thing was charging for me in a flat-out sprint. I thought I was going to die. I closed my eyes and..."

"And?"

"And nothing happened," she said. "I waited for about five minutes before I was finally brave enough to open my eyes and look around and when I did, that thing, whatever it was, was gone. It had vanished into thin air. I didn't waste time getting out of there. I ran all the way home and I got a tongue lashing of a lifetime when my mother found me. You can bet that I never broke curfew again after that."

"That's very scary," Katherine said.

"Yes, but it wasn't unusual. Nearly everyone in Niseko has had an experience with the shadow men. If you live there long enough you'll see things, hear things during the night," she told her. "My husband told me this story once of his experience. He was driving along the road that takes you to the academy. It's about a five kilometer stretch of forest, a part of a nature preserve, so nothing would get built there. And he told me, that while he was driving, he glanced out the window and saw this figure. He said it's pale body was running next to the tree line, keeping up with the car, and its face was turned directly to him, looking at him and not breaking eye contact until he left that stretch of road. He said its face was sunken with hollowed cheeks and its eyes were glowing through the trees. He said that he was never going to drive that road again and he didn't and he never saw another shadow man."

"Shadow man?"

"That what my _Oka-san_ always called them," she explained. "She said that they were drawn to the sound of a living heartbeat and only by wearing a special charm could you protect yourself." The woman dug under the collar of her coat and pulled out a small cloth ball necklace with thin leather straps. The straps were wound tightly around the end of the ball and secured with needle and thread. She held it out for Katherine to touch and when she did, Katherine found that the small ball crinkled as if it was filled with some kind of dried herb. "I was wearing it that night in the alley and I haven't taken it off since. Just in case that thing, whatever it was, comes back. After that, I decided I wasn't going to take any chances and I've always been sure to be in my house with all the doors and windows locked before sunset."

Katherine wasn't someone who bought into the whole supernatural world and the superstitions that came with it. She considered herself, for the most part, a relatively rational thinker and firmly believed in the ability of science to explain away most unexplainable things. Most, not all. Still, despite this opinion, Katherine only politely laughed off the old woman's tales and took the extra protection charm when she was offered it. They enjoyed companionable conversation for the rest of the ride; chatting about a variety of different topics, none of which was significant to be remembered, and parted ways when the train arrived at Kutchan Station. As the old woman was leaving, she turned back with one more word of warning.

"If you take the bus at night and it stops before you reach the academy," she said, "for whatever reason—Stay on the bus. Don't get off and go into the woods there."

"Okay," Katherine nodded. "I have someone picking me up at the station, but I'll be sure to keep that in mind."

The old lady smiled, looking relieved. Then, without another word, she left.

Katherine stood up slowly stretching out her stiff arms and legs. She picked up her puffy down coat and shrugged it on; shoving the small prescription bottle into one of the side pockets as she did so. Then she tugged on her hat and took her backpack down from the overhead compartment before she too exited the train. She stepped out onto the open platform taking a deep breath of winter air. It was bitterly cold and windy, but surprisingly clear skies. The sun had begun to set on the horizon casting everything in a hazy golden glow.

She walked down the platform, stopping briefly to throw away her empty water bottle, then looking around for headmaster Kurosu. He was supposed to meet her here. She didn't know what he looked like, but he had told her that he would wear a red rose on his person in order for her to know who he was. She saw a crowd of people congregating at the pick up for the bus. A tall, broad-shouldered man with light brown hair bumped into her as he passed.

"Pardon me," she apologized inclining her head slightly forward. He stopped and acknowledged her with a hurried "It's alright, Sheila. No harm done" before continuing on down the platform. She watched him join the crowd waiting for the bus. Then she turned around still looking for a man with a red rose. She didn't see anyone. Frowning she decided to ask inside at the ticket counter.

"I was supposed to be picked up by a man wearing a red rose. Have you seen anyone like that around here?" She asked the ticket agent.

The ticket agent, a young woman with black hair and brown eyes, furrowed her brows and shook her head. "I'm afraid not," she said.

"Oh…" Katherine frowned. "Well, do you know where I can find a payphone?"

"Of course," the woman chirped pointing with her finger, "You go outside and you walk down the platform until you get to the train map and it should be just behind that."

" _Arigatou,_ " she thanked the woman and made her way outside. She found the payphones easily enough and reached into her backpack for her wallet and the number that headmaster Kurosu had given her. Shrugging off one of her gloves, she inserted some coins into the slot and punched in the number, holding the receiver to her ear.

" _Moshi moshi?"_

It was a girl's voice that answered. "Hi—umm—I'm looking for _Kurosu-san_ ," Katherine said in English.

" _Nani? Mo ichido itte kudasai."_

The girl sighed and tried again. " _Eigo-o hanashimasu-ka?"_ She asked.

" _Ie, eigo-o hanashimasen,"_ the girl said.

" _Kurosu-san-wa doko-ni desu-ka?"_

" _Oh! Chotto matte kudasai,"_ Katherine listened to some rustling on the other end and then a man's voice was speaking in thick, accented English. "Hello?"

"Hello, is this Headmaster Kurosu?" Katherine asked.

"Yes, who's this?"

"It's Katherine Taylor."

"Oh, yes!" The man exclaimed causing her to wince and pull the phone away from her ear. "Ms. Taylor, how are you? How was the trip? I know it's a long way from Tokyo to Niseko. You must be exhausted."

"The trip was fine," she said frowning. A nagging sensation was starting to develop at the base of her skull. It could've been the after-effects of the motion sickness, albeit Katherine was beginning to suspect that the headmaster had in fact forgotten to pick her up. "Look I'm at the station," she told him.

"Ah, right. I'm terribly sorry, Ms. Taylor. I forgot. Things have been so busy around here today, it completely slipped my mind." As she suspected.

"That's okay. Is someone else coming to get me or—" She let that sentence hang as she glanced around her at the bus that had pulled up at the station.

"I can send someone to fetch you. Although, you might just want to take the bus. It'll be faster than having to wait. And with the sun setting…" He trailed off, his voice taking on an ominous edge that was reminiscent of Mrs. Akiyama. "I wouldn't feel comfortable knowing you're out there all alone in the dark. Not that you're afraid of the dark or anything—but it not safe, for a young girl that is."

Katherine nodded, although he couldn't see. "Okay, then that's what I'll do. The bus just pulled up, so I better go if I don't want to miss it."

The edge melted out of the headmaster's voice and he sounded almost relieved. "Alright, then go. I'll see you soon," he said.

The girl mumbled a quick bye into the receiver, then she replaced the phone back on the hook, and hurried down the platform to the bus. She had just barely managed to make it in time before the doors had closed, nodding at the driver, and dropping some yen coins in the farebox. She looked around the crowd of people huddled around, both sitting and standing in the aisle, then moved down the walkway towards the end of the bus. Her hand wrapped around the handrail for support as the heavy metal behemoth lurched forward. She had to get to Niseko village which was a thirty-minute trip, though with the snow it would end up being around forty-five minutes. Hopefully, the pills she took on the train would still be effective for the bus ride.

* * *

All things considered, Katherine had been holding up fairly well. The roads were still curvy and bumpy with far too many potholes to count that had sent her almost stumbling into the aisle, nonetheless, she had managed to ignore all that in favor of striking up a conversation with some of the fellow passengers. One, in particular, was a big burly Australian man, the same Australian man that she had bumped into on the platform, named Nigel Gregerson. He was a friendly enough guy, friendly enough that the girl had no reservations in talking with him. His voice was loud, unintentionally loud, and gruff carrying in a way that she found that she liked listening to. He told her he was on a ski trip with some buddies of his, that he was originally from southern Queensland, and that this was his first time visiting Japan. In return, she told him this was she was originally from Colorado, but she had never skied before in her life, and that this was her third time in Japan.

"You'll have to go sometime," he urged her. "There's nothing like it. Especially 'ere. Niseko is the best ski resort in the country."

"Maybe. I'll definitely have some time, I think," she said thinking about how'd she be in Japan for the next couple months at least. It was unknown how long exactly Katherine was supposed to stay in Japan nor how long it would take for Lucian to complete his assignment. It could be anywhere from three months to a year. If things worked out she hoped to be on a redeye out of Japan come March. She didn't want to think of any alternatives to that, still she considered skiing with a kind of keenness like a small child considers the idea of visiting Disneyland for the first time.

Katherine jerked forward. Her attention snapped up to the driver who had brought the bus to a rather forceful stop. She tightened her grip on the overhead handrail and just barely managed to keep herself on her feet. Muttering a curse under her breath, she then apologized to the young mother and daughter that she had very nearly toppled over.

"What's going on? Why'd we stop?" Gregerson asked her. She had a far better grasp on the native language than he, so he was relying on her to translate what the driver and the other passengers were saying. Although, Katherine couldn't make much sense of it either.

She heard some disgruntled grumbles from a man in a dark coat and hat, saying something about those damn potholes and how the bus probably got stuck again. Ahead of her, the mother was shushing her daughter when the little girl had mumbled something about the woods. "It's okay," her mother said, "There's nothing to be scared of as long as we're on the bus." She furrowed her brows at that being reminded of Mrs. Akiyama's warning; her hand unconsciously patting the front of her coat where she had slipped the charm. It reassured her a bit to know that she still had it on her person, even if she herself did not believe in such things, it was wise to accept any kind of luck or protection that was offered because at worst it could have a placebo effect on her psyche.

The bus driver stood up and turned to the crowd of anxious passengers. "Please, remain calm," he said. "Everything is okay." Hurried questions of "what happened?" and "why have we stopped?" were thrown at him from multiple passengers and he went onto explain that the bus had unexpectedly hit a deep pothole and had become effectively stuck. "We are prepared for things like this. But I ask that you be patient while I dig us out. It should only take about ten minutes or so. Feel free to get off the bus and stretch your legs in the meantime, or stay here and keep yourselves warm," he suggested politely, then climbed off the bus into the bitter cold.

Katherine relayed the message back to Gregerson, who nodded, then mumbled something about needing to take a leak. As there were no bathrooms on the bus, that left him with having to brave the great outdoors. He moved to get past her, and for a second, Katherine felt that she should stop him. "Are you sure you want to go out there?" She asked.

"I don't want to. I have to," he said. "I drank about three cups of coffee before I got on the bus." He smiled reassuringly down at her, patting her shoulder twice as he passed by. "I'll be alright. I'm not afraid of the dark."

 _Well, maybe you should be,_ Katherine thought but didn't say anything more. She watched him out through the window as he slinked off into the tree line, leaving nothing but a set of footprints in the eight-inch snow in his wake. The mother that had been soothing her child saw this, then turned around alarmed. "Where is he going? He's not going outside?"

"I'm pretty sure he just did," she replied frowning.

"He shouldn't have gone," the mother told her. "Now he's bound to draw them to us."

"Draw who to where?" Katherine was perplexed. All day she had been hearing vague warnings from locals, and even though she didn't buy into them, she was starting to think that maybe there was something to it. The image of a skeletal man with hollowed cheeks and glowing eyes flashed in her mind for a brief moment, but Katherine quickly shook herself out of that thought. _No, there's nothing in those woods but a pack of wolves,_ she told herself. Mrs. Akiyama, while well-intentioned, was a bit too herbal healing and aura sensing to be taken that seriously.

The mother didn't respond to the girl's question, instead, she went back to soothing her daughter as the little girl broke out into a crying fit. Katherine started to move down the aisle before the woman reached out and grabbed her arm. "Where are you going?" She demanded.

Katherine gestured with her hand to the woods. "Outside. I'm going to go look for him," she said.

The mother's grip tightened on her wrist. She shook her head and fixed Katherine with a look that left her little argument. "No, don't." She said, " It's too late to save him. He has put his life into his own hands. If you follow him you're be dooming yourself the same fate."

"Okay. I'm getting a little sick of people telling me what I can and can't do," she said. "If you don't want to go out there, fine. But I'm not going to stay here while—"

The most horrible sound erupted from the trees. It sounded almost like a wolf howl, but it didn't have the same mournfulness nor majestic beauty. This sound was harsh, cruel, like nails being dragged down a chalkboard, a pack of wild hyenas laughing, and dying screams of six million Holocaust Jews all combined together into something that made your blood freeze in your veins. "W-What was that sound?" She asked.

The color had drained out of the mother's face. She looked out the window, her face was one of abject horror. "It's here," she whispered.

"Who's here? What are you—"

Then again that godawful howl cut the girl off. It was louder, closer, and everyone on the bus seemed to hold their breaths. It was so quiet that for a moment Katherine thought she heard the distant call of a screech owl several kilometers down the road. Then another howl and another and another in rapid succession cut through the silence pulling everyone out of their deer-in-the-headlights stupor. Several things happened at once. The little girl broke out into a fit of uncontrollable wails and the mother began rocking her back and forth mumbling something under her breath. The man that had been complaining about the potholes started yelling for the bus driver as did about ten other people and that they needed to get the hell away from that place. Katherine saw a flash of something white through the trees. Then a blood-curdling scream that she immediately recognized as Gregerson's voice ripped through her like a knife.

"We need to leave now!" The bus driver clambered back onto the bus, shaking like a leave. His face was pale white and he looked literally like he had seen a ghost. "Something's outside."

"Yeah, a passenger," Katherine yelled over the shouts of the other passengers marching up to the bus driver. She stood over the shaking man as he hunched over the steering wheel and fixed him with a leveling gaze. "We have to do something."

"Drive!" Someone called out from the back. The girl looked down the aisle to see it was the mother that had spoken.

"What? Are you serious? We can't just leave him out there," she said.

"Better him than us. Drive!" She ordered as various echoes of "drive" came from the rest of the company.

Katherine was shocked at the uncompassionate passengers. Especially when the small girl had started wailing at the top of her lungs, "Leave him, leave him." She turned to the driver, who seemed to be the only person that had even a smidgen of a conscious. He looked at her and winced. "I'm sorry," he said. "But I can't go out there. It's suicide. Please, we have to go now."

She took a step back, almost as if she had been knocked back by his words. Then she glanced at the other passengers, looks of fear and contempt, contempt towards her because she was standing in between them and their exit, on their faces. She had never been in a situation like this. Never had she witnessed such desire to save your own skin and disregard for the welfare of an innocent. It scared her, more so than that thing in the woods did. She didn't want to be around these people, these people that while human had lost all human compassion, she couldn't stomach it. She looked at the driver one last time and the man wouldn't even make eye contact.

"Fine! I'll go then." Frustrated, Katherine slammed her hand down on the handle that opened the door and turned it. She moved towards the door and threw a glare over her shoulder.

* * *

There were moments in life when if you had made a different decision if you had walked down a different path, your life would've taken an entirely separate path. When Katherine stepped off that bus into the icy December wind, without knowing it, she had effectively set her life on a different course. This was the fall. This was Alice going down the rabbit hole. The inciting incident that changed her outlook on life as she knew it. Like in that Robert Frost poem, she had taken the road less traveled by, literally.

The bus peeled out as soon a she was off it; a dusting of powder billowing up in the air from the tires and enveloping her in a cloud of icy particles. "Assholes."

She blinked her eyes against the sensation and walked forward into the treeline. She navigated down a sloping hill away from the road as she followed Gregerson's footprints. She was fortunate that there was a trail to follow and that Gregerson had such big feet that it made navigating her way through eight-inch snow much easier as she was able to hop from one pressed down patch of snow to the next.

She walked for what she estimated to be about a hundred feet before she entered a small forest clearing. There the footprints became sporadic, crisscrossing over each other and turning this way then that, kicking up piles of snow. Then suddenly there was large impression as, what she guessed, Gregerson was knocked off his feet and dragged off to the left. She followed the trail another hundred feet to a large red pine where the trail suddenly stops. It was an old tree with a thick trunk that she could barely wrap arms around once. She noticed a strange carving in the bark above her head and wiped away at the snow to see it better. It was a smaller tree without leaves and extensive branches stemming out from the bottom and top. Below the tree was another smaller carving of a snowflake-like figure.

As she stood there, she started to get the sense that she was being watched. She turned around and looked out at the dark forest around her; trying to see through the shadows to anything lurking there. Katherine didn't dare call out. She had seen enough horror films to know that that was an incredibly stupid idea and was likely to result in her death. Beams of moonlight traveled through the trees lighting up the snow banks, the crystals sparkling in the faint light, it was then that she noticed something that she had overlooked before. A sense of foreboding started to creep into her bones as she realized that there were only two sets of footprints in the snow. Two sets of human footprints, hers and Gregerson's, and then she noticed something else. A pungent odor like spoiled milk and formaldehyde wafting through the air. It was so strong that she pinched her nose in hopes of blocking out the smell.

 _What is that?_

She felt a drop of water land on her cheek and idly brushed it away. She needed to find Gregerson. She knew she couldn't stay here much longer. And that smell—godknows how long she could stand it. She was already starting to feel a light headed and groggy. She tried to focus her thoughts, but information seemed to be coming in slower. It was as if a misty cloud of knockout gas had drifted in and enveloped her and all her senses. She wanted to sleep, just nap—A nap couldn't hurt, right? She swayed lightly on her feet and tilted backwards knocking against the tree. That jolted her awake momentarily, enough to notice another drop of water hit her forehead, and then she realized that that wasn't water dripping on her face. All her senses sharpened to a laser focus as she looked up and saw a figure strung upside down in the branches.

Her first thought was that there was a giant bat up in the tree, its large wings wrapped around it, cocooning its head away from onlookers. But then she looked again and realized that it wasn't a giant man-sized bat. It was a man, a headless man—specifically a headless Gregerson.

Katherine screamed.

She hadn't meant to have done it. But when she saw Gregerson hanging there. The sound had torn its way out of her throat faster than she could stop it. She jumped back and tripped over her own feet, landing in the powder of snow with a splat. Though she hadn't lied there in long, for as soon as she had screamed another one of those chilling howls echoed back to her, and she knew that she needed to run.

It didn't matter where she was going. Katherine took off like a gazelle with a lion on her tail. She didn't wait to see if it was following her, or for that matter what was following her. Stray branches scraped against her clothes and face, leaving small rips and tears in her skin and coat, but she paid no mind as yet another howl echoed through the trees. This one was closer and seemed to be coming from her right. Katherine barely managed to turn her head and see something white in her peripheral before a force knocked into her side and she was thrown head over heels down a steep embankment.

Years of martial arts training had taught her to roll with a hit, so she quickly ducked her head low and curled herself into a ball to soften the brunt of the impact. It still hurt. Every blow shook her brain, scrambling her senses until she could no longer distinguish between up or down, left or right. The snow did two things. First, its softness helped lessen the impact of her falling. Second, because it was frozen water friction had become almost nonexistent, so when Katherine stopped rolling—cause she did stop rolling shortly after being hit—it wasn't because she had lost momentum, but because she had slammed into the trunk of a tree.

She was fortunate in that she had hit the tree with her back facing towards it and that her backpack had taken the brunt of the hit. She was sure without it, she surely would have broken her spine. But she was also unfortunate in that the force of the impact was enough to knock the air from her lungs. She laid there gasping, trying to focus her blurry vision, all the while knowing that she was about to die.

She should've listened to Mrs. Akiyama. She should've stayed on the bus and not taken off on some kind of hero trip. How stupid was she? She should've known that heroes always get killed in real life. It never plays out how it does in the movies. Good doesn't always conquer evil. In the real world, people die and dumb little girls get in over their heads.

She managed to get her breath back, along with some semblance of coherency as she sat up against the tree. She squinted against the darkness, up towards the top of the hill, and saw... _nothing?_ That thing, whatever it was, wasn't there. It hadn't followed her down the hill. She tried to make sense of what was going on as she sluggishly got on her feet. Using the trunk as support, she looked around her at the snow-covered underbrush and trees. Nothing. Not even a footprint or some strange animal tracks.

Katherine felt a shudder go through her. No. Something wasn't right. She could feel it. She wasn't out of the woods yet—pardon the pun—and that thing was still lurking in the shadows. It was like it was toying with her the same way a house cat plays with a field mouse. It enjoyed the chase. The thrill of being the predator and it was a predator, she realized, an apex predator. It was too fast for her to outrun and it was probably too strong for her to fight off. She didn't have any options. If she stayed there, she would die. If she ran, it would only chase her again.

She realized would have to fight. There was no other option. It was crazy, not to mention total suicide, but she would rather go out in a blaze of glory than lying down like a coward. One thing Katherine was not was a coward.

Feeling around her in the snow, Katherine came across a large tree branch. She unearthed it and as pleased to discover that it was a little over arm's length with about the same thickness, maybe a little less, making it perfect for swinging. She tightened her gloved hands around one end and brought it up to her shoulder.

"Where are you? Show yourself!" She yelled taking a cautious step away from the tree. Something breezed past her, she saw it out of the corner of her eye. "C'mon you bastard! I'm not scared of you! You wanna eat me? Well, here I am!"

She took another step in the direction of the where she thought the creature was lurking. Raising the stick over her head, she sucked in a breath and leaped behind a tree. Nothing. She lowered the stick slightly and frowned. "This game of hide and seek is getting a bit old," she said. "I'm sure you got better things to do than chase me around the woods. I mean sure it's a good workout, great cardo. But I'm sure you don't want to be so far away from your tree…" She ducked around another tree, "And let's face it, I'm not much in terms of protein. Have you seen how little muscle mass I've got? You probably can't tell with this coat on, but I assure you my arms are like spaghetti—And not the normal spaghetti either, the angel hair kind."

"Though maybe that won't matter to you," she reconsidered. "After all maybe you're more of a head guy. Is that what you like? Do you eat people's heads? What's your favorite part? The eyes, or maybe the tongue…" She thought she saw another shadow drift past her. "...or how about the brain? Did you know the brain is seventy-three percent water? Or that it's really high in cholesterol? You care about your heart right? You know what they say, 'Bee healthy. Bee Happy.' Aren't you worried that too much brain might be a bad thing?"

Suddenly, she heard a branch or something snapped above her and she just barely had enough time to react as something heavy, white, and strong pushed her back into the snow. She brought the stick up and blocked the creature's sharp claws from tearing into her neck. She landed with a thud blinked up at the monster that had attacked her. Mrs. Akiyama hadn't been far from the mark, her words "like a man, but not a man" seemed to be a pretty apt description. The face was sunken in and skeletal with glowing yellow eyes. Its mouth hung open with two slits in the side of its cheeks like the scars on the Batman's Joker, opening its mouth to where she could see two rows of jagged teeth, like a shark's, on both the top and the bottom jaw. There was a black ooze dripping out of its mouth and Katherine realized where the smell from earlier had come from as she was suddenly hit with the pungent odor. The creature had no fur or hair, and the only hair it did have was at the very top of its head in thin black, barely there, strands falling from the sides of its face.

It made this awful hissing sound that had Katherine wanting to block her ears. And when it spoke—It actually spoke—the words came out sounding guttural and slurred. "You talk too much," it said.

Katherine was rightfully terrified. So much so that the words that came out of her mouth had been more reflexive than anything else. "Not a fan of dinner theatre? That's something we have in common." Then her hands seemed to move on their own accord and she forced the stick upwards and clocked the beast in the face as she kicked upwards with her feet, throwing it several feet back. She rolled on to her feet and swung the branch forward to bat away one of its big paws— _Paws? Hands?_ Then ducking and rolling under its other arm, she swung the branch down at the base of its skull. The branch snapped in two and the thing jolted forward, the hit barely phasing it. The only thing she managed to do was to piss it off and it whirled on her hooking one of Katherine's arms and flinging her forcefully into the air and down another embankment.

The girl rolled a couple times before she landed in a shallow ditch. As soon as she had stopped, the monster was on her again, it's sharp claws shredding through her coat and slashing into her shoulder. Katherine screamed as the pain flooded her senses and at the same time thrust the other end of the stick, the end that she had managed to hold on to, upwards into the monster's eye. It howled a painful wail and leapt away from her. She found the strength to get back on her feet while keeping pressure on the wound.

The creature was hunched over clutching at the branch in its eye. It was at least several inches deep, deep enough that she had no doubt that it had permanently damaged the beast's eye, but also not so deep as to kill it by lodging in its brain. She doubted that a stick to the brain would even phase it if a thing like that had it happened. From farther away, Katherine was able to better see the creature in its entirety. Its body, much like its face, was a ghostly pale pallor and thin, thinner than Lindsay Lohan, that it was almost nothing more than a skeleton covered only with skin. It was hunched forward in a very peculiar way like its back legs were much, much longer than the front. Its feet, or hands depending on how you looked at it, were similar to that of a monkey's in that it had opposable thumbs on both the front and the back and there were long three-inch talon-like claws protruding out the creature's hands.

Katherine watched as it painstakingly pulled the tree branch from its face, a hot red trail of blood oozing from its eye down to its chin. It dropped the branch carelessly on the ground. Then, with its one good eye, turned it on Katherine, snarling. It crouched down low as if it was about to lunge, then something happened to cause it to stop. Instead, it reared back almost in surprise and tilted its head questioningly at the girl. She stared back evenly, not daring to move her eyes from it glazed yellow ones for fear that the second she did it would find the opportunity to attack her. Then without warning or reason, the creature spun around and fled in a blur of white back in the direction of its tree.

The girl stood there moment staring dumbly at the place the creature had been. She couldn't fathom what had happened. Or for that matter, why it hadn't attacked her and instead had chosen to retreat. But to hell, if she was going to stay there and question it, while she now had the perfect opportunity to make a run for it.

* * *

She stumbled through the snow, in the direction of what she hoped was the road. Although it was dark and she was unfamiliar with the area. Not to mention in fleeing from the tree she had unknowingly runoff in the complete opposite direction of the road.

The air seemed to be getting colder, however that may have had something to do with the large gash in the shoulder of her coat, and after what she felt was an hour thick flurries started to cascade down from in between the trees. Her shoulder was still bleeding, fortunately, she didn't think the wound was very deep, and with the added cold Katherine found herself fighting to hold on to her faculties. She kept drifting in and out of consciousness. At times it felt like she was dreaming as she trekked through those silent trees.

 _I'm going to die out here,_ she thought. If that thing doesn't loop back and finish her off, hypothermia and frostbite would surely finish the job. She could barely keep her eyes open at this point. She had lost her hat sometime in the fall and the tips of her ears were almost completely frozen as a result, her snot having long since turned into two giant icicles.

She didn't know how long she was going to be in these woods. It felt like hours already of her stumbling around in the dark. At some point, Katherine had stopped to use her scarf to make a make a poorly tied tourniquet in order to stem the flow of blood. It was a difficult thing to do one-handed but she managed with some acrobatics and her teeth, however, she had to constantly keep stopping in order to readjust or tighten the makeshift bandage.

She rounded a bend of trees and crawling sluggishly over a fallen log. The snow had been falling steadily for at least an hour, probably longer, and had covered the top of her head. She was so tired. She needed to stop, to rest. Just for a minute, then she would keep walking. She knew she couldn't stop moving as it was the only thing keeping her conscious and she only planned to rest long enough to tighten her bandage and catch her breath.

She leaned against the snowy dusted bark of a large deciduous tree. It's thick curly branches stretched high above her head up to the heavens. She stared upwards watching the thick flakes of white continue to fall out of the inky blackness, her breath misting around her face, and listened to the deafening silence. "Geez it's quiet here," she said, not because anyone was listening but because she needed to disrupt the stillness around her.

If she had been a religious person, this would've probably been the time to send up a prayer asking for deliverance or refuge or something, but she did none of that. Instead, she imagined that falling snowflakes were the trillions upon trillions of stars in the heavens and thought about how right now she was only a spec on a planet in the ever-expanding cosmic universe.

The thought reassured her like a mother's comforting hug. Yes, this was all insignificant in the grand scheme of things. She and her problems were nothing but a blip, a tiny pinprick, on a very large radar. That knowledge should've made her feel lonely or even possibly sad, but she had never aspired to be anything more than what she was, and she knew that while she loved living, her life was nothing more than a candy wrapper, light as air and drifting along aimlessly. There would be no great impact from her dying. Sure it would be leaving Lucian alone and he would mourn her for a time, but then even he would move on and she would be nothing more than a memory.

Unconsciously she slid down the trunk of the tree until she was sitting in the snow with her feet splayed out before her. The cold had numbed her senses to the point that she almost couldn't feel anything anymore. Her shoulder should have been in agony, but all it felt like nothing. Overall she felt calm, peaceful, like any second she could close her eyes and drift off into a blissful sleep. She wasn't scared anymore, come what may, she'd go to it laughing. Her last thought before her eyes finally drifted shut was of the Law of Conservation of Energy and how it didn't sound half bad at all.

She fell into a dreamless sleep for a time. But at some point, she began to hear voices, vague echoing voices that sounded as if they were far away and underwater. She became aware as she listened that the voices were two distinctly separate male timbres and drifting closer. She couldn't make sense of what they were saying at first, the words sounding jumbled and foreign, but as they drew nearer she began to make out bits and pieces of what was being said.

" _Over here! I found her!"_

" _Is she dead?"_

" _Hold on…"_ She felt warm hands trail over her neck, tilting her head back and feeling for a pulse. They settled there for a few moments and she relished in the heat seeping into her from them before they pulled away. " _She's alive, half frozen, but alive nonetheless. Oi."_ The hands started shaking her shoulders and Katherine let out a shaky, breathy groan in response. " _C'mon, you can't sleep here. C'mon, that's it lean forward."_ She was groggy and hardly aware of what was happening around her, but she felt two warm arms pull her half upright and hold her there. " _Hey, Akatsuki, get over here and help me will you!"_

" _Can't you carry her?"_

" _You have a higher body temperature than I do. Now c'mere and take her from me."_

Katherine felt herself get passed from one warm body to another. Her eyes felt like they were being weighed down by lead weights, still, she somehow found the strength to open them taking in the scene. She blinked slowly catching glimpses of trees, snow, a pair of fancy brown loafers and white slacks. Then the person holding her adjusted their grip and her head bobbed to the right resting against the man's warm upper torso. Katherine instinctually curled into it, basking in its warmth. She felt the soft material of his wool coat against her cheek and inhaled the scent of cinnamon and spiced apples, then without further to do she drifted out of consciousness again.

* * *

 **Author's Note:**

Well, there it is chapter 1! I've been thinking a lot about the direction I want to take this story, more specifically how I want to end it and work my way back from there. In my first draft (I don't date vampires) the plot doesn't really begin to factor in until chapter 7 or so, which made the first couple chapters very painful to reread. So what I'm thinking is that I'm going to try to keep this story around 30 chapters or so with about 20 pages or 10,000 words a piece as a way for me to not overwrite a bunch of useless filler. I think that'll help me keep to a schedule and unlike my first draft I'm working on an overall outline for this fic before I really get into writing it.

In regards to the Japanese, I do realize that it can be a bit difficult to read. However, unlike in IDDV, in this fic, Katherine isn't completely fluent in the language and as a way to translate that over to the reader, I've included several Japanese words and phrases in conversations so you guys can feel a little out of your element as well. But be assured as Katherine becomes more familiar with Japan and the language, the Japanese will slowly blend away into English.

It'll probably be some time before I can get chapter 2 posted as I'll be outlining and plotting, but rest assured I will post it as soon as I feel that it's ready.


	2. (2) White Lies

**EXPLAINING THE UNEXPLAINABLE  
CHAPTER TWO  
**" **White Lies"**

* * *

" _Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure; seldom can it happen that something is not a little disguised or a little mistaken."_

— _Jane Austen, Emma._

* * *

Blackness, dark, cool blissful blackness. There were no thoughts. No dreams, at least no dreams that she could recall upon waking, just the emptiness of a quiet mind. It was like she had been transported to a sensory deprivation tank and all that she could see, hear, and feel was nothing. She had only her thoughts, except most were fleeting and forgotten as soon as they were made. Katherine emerged from this blank state of mind gradually, like climbing a tall spiraling staircase. As she neared the top, light, and sounds and smells started to seep into her consciousness. The first thing she became aware of was the strong smell of lemony Pine Sol and fresh laundry. Then she began to hear a steady _tick-tick-tick_ of a clock, like a metronome, over somewhere to the left of her keeping pace with her heartbeat, before finally she began to feel the warmth from the light shining over her head.

From behind her eyelids, the light grew steadily brighter and more intrusive by the second. Her eyes opened and Katherine blinked owlishly at the white tiled ceiling above her. The shining fluorescent overhead lights were blinding and she quickly closed her eyes letting a soft groan pass from her lips. A shuffling a chair beside her made her realize she wasn't alone and she instinctively bolted upright in panic.

A young girl with short brown hair and russet-colored eyes leaned over her and placed a small hand on her uninjured shoulder, stopping her. " _Daijyōbu-desu. Nenakutewa ikemasen. Wakarimashita-ka?"_ She applied pressure to her shoulder and gradually eased her back against the soft pillows behind her head. Katherine still groggy, her mind just beginning to emerge from its sleep induced fog, was no match for the strength of the girl, so she flopped back against the bed helplessly. " _Go-kibun-wa ikaga-desu-ka?"_ The brunette asked her.

Katherine stared at her blankly, not yet understanding what she was saying. "W-What?" She croaked hoarsely causing the other girl to furrow her brows in confusion.

" _Wakarimashita-ka?"_ She said then asked, " _Nihongo-o hanashimasu-ka?"_

Katherine nodded slowly. " _Gomennasai. Nihongo-ga sukoshi hanasemasu. Watashi-no-atama-wa osoi desu. Mō ichido itte kudasai."_

The burnet hummed understandingly and repeated her question from earlier. She wanted to know how Katherine was feeling. Honestly, she felt like she had been run over by a truck. But she was unsure about how to go about expressing this to the girl. " _Okagesama-de yoku narimashita."_

"Ah! That's a relief," the girl said sincerely. "We were really worried that you wouldn't wake up. What with how we found you in the woods, you were lucky that _Aidou-sempai_ and _Kain-sempai_ had stumbled across you. But you're feeling better now so that's great! Your shoulder doesn't hurt too much does it?"

Katherine turned her head and glanced at the shoulder in question. She could see some gauze from under the collar of the hospital smock that she was wearing and figured that someone had properly cleaned, stitched, and dressed her wound. It didn't hurt as much as it did before, but the area was still tender and moving she found resulted in the pain flaring up again. "It's fine," she told her. "A little sore, but I can manage."

"That's great news!" The burnet smiled jovially. Then as if she had just remembered something she smacked herself on the forehead, "Oh, I'm such an idiot. I forgot to introduce myself. My name's Kurosu, Yuki."

" _Dōzo yoroshiku,"_ Katherine smiled weakly and then introduced herself as well.

"Oh, I already know who you are," Yuki told her.

"You do?"

"Well, yeah. I mean we found your wallet with your passport in it," Yuki said. "Not that we were trying to invade your privacy or anything, we were just trying to figure out who you were."

"Oh, I see." Katherine nodded. That made sense. Finding a strange girl in the woods, bleeding and half frozen to death—The first thing anyone would do is look for some kind of identification as to who she was.

The girl's eyes darted around her curiously taking in her surroundings. There were cots, more like small twin-sized beds with iron railings, and tall floor-to-ceiling curtain dividers hanging around them. Katherine's divider was parted in such a way that she could see to the opposite side of the room where a long counter and multiple heavy duty cabinets lined the walls. She recognized the large red crosses printed on the cabinet doors as medical supplies and figured that she must be in a hospital of some kind. Looking down at her hands, she saw that one forearm was covered with white gauze and bandage tightly past her wrist in a temporary splint. Yuki saw her looking at this and explained, "You sprained your wrist. You're going to have to wear that for a couple weeks."

"Oh." Katherine set her arm down and glanced at the girl beside her. Yuki was a petite girl with chocolate brown hair cropped around her chin, falling in loose, barely there, waves. Her bangs were pinned out of her face with black bobby pins, but a few stray strands had managed to escape and fall into her eyes. She had particularly sweet disposition with large doleful eyes and round cheeks with a natural rosy flush that made her look like she was one of the kids off of those vintage Hallmark Christmas cards. She was wearing a black long sleeve t-shirt with a pair of dark jeans and a grey and green striped pull-over cardigan and a pair of brown winter boots. Katherine looked at her and frowned thoughtfully. "You said your name was Kurosu, Yuki?"

"Yep, that's right."

"Any relation to Kurosu, Kaien?" She asked.

Yuki nodded. "That's my dad," she said.

"Okay, so…" Katherine paused taking another quick glance around the room. "Where am I exactly? Am I in the hospital?"

"Close, but no. You're in the infirmary," she said.

Katherine looked at her puzzled. "The infirmary? Do you mean the nurses' office? Like at the academy?" She asked.

Yuki nodded. "It was easier to treat you here than to take you to the hospital. The closest hospital is in the village and we didn't think moving you that far in your condition would've been a good idea," she said. "You're very lucky, ya know? It's not uncommon for people to freeze to death up here, especially in the woods. Sometimes people, foreigners, they get badly injured or they die because they've underestimated the elements. Also, I know for a fact that this area is occupied with a lot of dangerous wild animals; bears and wolves for example."

"Yeah, I heard something about that…" Katherine said cooly. It wasn't just bears and wolves that occupied the area that's for damn sure.

"Well, I think you've had some first-hand experience," Yuki gestured toward her injured shoulder. "I helped dress it and I gotta say those claw marks were pretty nasty. What attacked you? Do you remember?"

Katherine froze for a moment as the image of that thing flashed in her minds eye. What could she say? Surely, she couldn't tell the truth, that she'd been attacked by a-a-a—She didn't know what the hell to call it. A shadow man? Although, it sure as hell hadn't been human, not in the slightest. Possibly she could've classified it as a kind of large primate, similar to an orangutan or a baboon, but a wolf or a bear—It was definitely not. Still, she knew she couldn't say any of this out loud without sounding like she escaped out of Bellevue. What happened to her was too fantastical to believe, so much so that even she had trouble believing it happened.

Yuki sat by her side waiting for an answer that Katherine couldn't give. She was watching the blonde girl closely and saw how she started to become visibly distressed, balling the thin bed sheet into two tight little fists. "Y-You don't have to answer that," she said. " _Gomen._ I didn't mean to upset you or bring up any bad memories."

"It's okay," Katherine murmured. "I just—I don't know what to tell you. I don't—"

"No, that's alright. Don't force yourself," Yuki said, waving her hands as if to shoo away all the tension in the air. "It's my fault. Sometimes I don't think before I say things, so I end up with my foot in my mouth more often than not. Look, I'm gonna go get the Chairman. Now, that you're awake, he'll want to see you to make sure you're alright. Will you be alright if I leave you for a few minutes?"

"Oh, yeah, I'll be fine," Katherine assured her.

"Okay. I'll be back in three minutes, I promise." She didn't give the other girl any time to respond before she slipped off the chair and darted out the door.

As soon as the door clicked shut behind her, Katherine sat up in the bed and pressed her palms to her eyes. This was bad—really, really bad. She had to come up with a lie, a good one that would divert all suspicion from her. Except the thing was, Katherine simply couldn't think of one that covered both the attack and why she had been in the woods, to begin with. Really the only thing she could think that might work was feigning total ignorance of the whole ordeal. But that had the risk of her possibly slipping up and eluding to the fact that she remembered more than she let on.

Her hands moved instinctively to the gold antique locket around her neck, toying with it. She needed to call Lucian. But what would she say? More importantly, what could he do from another country? It wasn't like he could just transfer her to another boarding school, could he? She doubted it. Still, Katherine knew that this place was too dangerous to stay here. She needed to get away, as soon a possible—No, sooner than that.

Unfortunately, Katherine wasn't given any more time to ponder her predicament as the door of the infirmary reopened and in walked Yuki with two men. The first man was relatively tall, taller than was expected of someone of Japanese descent, with a somewhat muscular build. It was difficult to tell with the big tan coat that he wore, but Katherine considered that he must spend some time doing weight lifting at the gym. He had a gentle, almost feminine-looking face, but both his jaw and cheekbones had the rough angles of a man. His ash blonde hair was long and tied back in a low ponytail with bangs falling into his eyes. He wore a pair of round wire-rimmed glasses perched on the bridge of his nose like an old man, but Katherine figured that he couldn't have been any older than thirty-five, maybe forty—It was difficult to tell. People of Asian descent usually aged better than most. The second man was much younger looking, somewhere between eighteen to twenty-five, with dark, almost black, hair and similar reddish-brown eyes to Yuki. He was looking severely overdressed in a crisp white suit with black lines running along the chest and sleeves. A dark burgundy tie secured under the collar of his black button up and tucked neatly into a white vest similar in style to his jacket. Overall, there was something about him that both unsettled and comforted Katherine. He had this way about him, an aura you could call it, that felt both familiar and foreign at the same time.

She didn't know what to make of either of them. But she didn't have a chance to really dwell on her observations as the blond man rushed forward in a flurry of words. "Ms. Taylor you're alright! Thank God! We were so worried. How are you? How are you feeling? Is your shoulder still hurting? I have some pain meds here for you," he came forward with a small paper cup with two white pills and a bottle of water, gave them to her, and sat down in the chair by the bed.

Katherine looked between him and the pills in her hands, her brows furrowing together. "T-Thank you," she said, then tilted her head questioningly. She looked at him silently trying to figure out if this was, in fact, the Headmaster or some random stranger giving her drugs.

He seemed to sense her confusion and smiled sympathetically. In English, he started speaking again. "I'm Headmaster Kurosu. We talked on the phone, remember?"

"Yes. I remember," she said.

"I'm sure you're very confused right now."

"Somewhat."

"That's perfectly understandable," he nodded, then gesturing to the other man said, "This is Dorm-President Kaname Kuran. He's a student in charge of the night class. You remember I told you how the school was separated into Day and Night students, right? Well, it was night class students, _Aidou-kun_ and _Kain-kun_ , that found you—They're in class right now—But he's here to check on your condition for them."

"...Oh?" Katherine regarded Kaname with a curious look, then switching to Japanese said, "Thank you for your concern, _Kuran-san_. You can tell your classmates that I'm feeling much better now." She gave him a somewhat demure, but still friendly smile before something—or more someone—had latched himself onto her, giving her an unprompted hug.

"You're so cute," Kaien cooed. "Almost as cute as my daughter, _Yuki-chan_."

Unsure of how to proceed with her hands full, the girl slowly and awkwardly patted the man on the back with her bandaged wrist. "Okay...umm, _Thank you?_ " She glanced at Yuki helplessly and mouthed "Help me" in English.

Despite not knowing the language or having any idea what it was Katherine was trying to say, Yuki recognized that panicked look anywhere. "Uh, C-Chairman," she started, then paused. "I mean _Otou-san_ , you should be careful of _Terrier-sempai's_ injuries." Terrier-sempai was, of course, Yuki's attempt at pronouncing Taylor. In Japanese there was no letter L, so all L-sounds ended up sounding like Rs. It seemed to do the trick, however, as the headmaster quickly released her.

"Oh no, I'm sorry! Did I hurt you?" He asked, worriedly.

"No. No, it's okay. I'm not hurt," she said. She was quick to reassure the man as he looked like he was beginning to tear up, and Katherine did not have the mental faculties at the moment to deal with a blubbering man, nor would she want to if she had. Tears had always made her a little uncomfortable as she never knew quite how to comfort people in times of distress and often times would end up saying something totally insensitive to the situation.

"That's a relief!" The man sighed, then his eyes turning more serious, he regarded Katherine almost suspiciously. "How is your shoulder? Are you feeling any of the pain yet?" He asked.

"It's fine. A bit sore, I suppose, but it's fine," she said.

"That's good, very good. You should still take the medicine, though," he said. "Then we'll talk about what happened, m'kay?"

Katherine nodded, slowly. Then setting the water bottle on her lap, she placed the two pills on the back of her tongue and unscrewed the cap taking a sip of the cool liquid. She didn't realize how dehydrated she was until she took a sip of the water. But before she knew it she had emptied the whole thing in a matter of seconds and was still feeling thirsty afterward. As if reading her mind, Kaien pulled out another unopened bottle seemingly out of thin air and handed it to her. Katherine thanked him, took a couple more sips before screwing back on the cap, and then turned her attention back to the man.

Kaien turned to his daughter and asked her to go check on Zero-kun and see how he was coming along with the food. Yuki nodded, then excused herself from the room shutting the door behind her with a soft click. In that time, Kaname had seen it fit of pull up a chair on the other side of Katherine's cot and sit down crossing his legs languidly over one another. The blonde glanced at him curiously. " _Sumimasen,_ " she started in Japanese. "But you seem familiar...Have we met before?"

Kaname stared at her with intent, seeming to examine her face thoroughly looking for any familiarity. He found none and shook his head. "I'm afraid you're mistaken. I've never met you," he said.

Katherine hummed, frowning, but decided to shove that nagging sense of familiarity to the back of her mind. She had more important things to be worrying about. Kaien watched this small exchange with a bizarre level of sobriety that was in stark contrast with his facetious mannerisms prior. It was like the bumbling air-head of a Headmaster was a carefully constructed mask that he wore only for the sake of his daughter, yet when she was no longer in the room, he no longer had any need to keep up pretenses. And when he spoke, startling the blonde, his voice was low and serious. "What exactly happened, Ms. Taylor?" He asked.

"Uh—I…" She hesitated at the stern look she was receiving from him. It was a look saying "don't you dare lie". But she couldn't tell the truth, so she ended up floundering for a moment, her mouth opening and closing like a fish. "I'm sorry," she said, inclining her head slightly forward.

"What for?"

"I don't know exactly. I don't know why I'm apologizing, I just—" She broke off, trying to organize her words so that they made sense and were not the disjointed, convoluted memories inside her head. "I don't know. I'm sorry." She stared down at her hands and began examining them under the yellow fluorescent lighting. She thought she saw a bit of dried blood under her fingernails and she shuddered.

Both men were quiet and the silence stretched uncomfortably long between the three of them. The with a sigh, Kaien spoke again. "Alright," he said, "let's start with an easier question. What happened after you called me at the station? Did you miss the bus?"

"No. I got on it," Katherine said slowly.

"Okay. So how did you end up in the woods?" This time it was Kaname asking the question. Katherine's green eyes flickered to his briefly seeing the furrow of his brows. She didn't like how he was looking at her. Like he knew, without knowing, like the whole incident was on her face, written out clear as day in black permanent marker.

"I don't remember," her voice was firm, tense. She felt like she was being attacked and like a cornered dog she felt the need to nash her teeth at him. Who was he that he provoked such a reaction from her? She shifted uncomfortably choosing to look solely at Kaien. "The bus, it got stuck in the snow or something. And that's really all I remember," she said, "until I woke up here."

"...I see." Kaien hummed thoughtfully. He didn't look like he fully believed her and his next question confirmed that. "So you don't know what attacked you?"

"What attack?" Katherine forced herself to look clueless. "Was I attacked?" She looked down at her injured shoulder and the gauze peeking out of the collar of the hospital smock. "Huh...I guess that explains the bandages…"

"You really don't remember?" Kaname asked. It didn't look like he was buying the load of crap she was selling any more than Kaien. In fact, the man seemed to regard her with even more suspicion than before. But they had reached an impasse. It became abundantly clear that both Kaname and Kaien knew Katherine was lying and Katherine was hyper-aware of that fact, but it was also clear that no matter what they asked or did she would not be caving to any external forces and exposing the truth. Her expression froze over with a steely determination and her eyes showed only mistrust of them.

"I don't," she said. "I'm sorry—"

"That's quite alright, Ms. Taylor," Kaien said much to the displeasure of Kaname. "You've been through a huge ordeal. It's likely that you're still processing memories or you may be suppressing them because of the trauma you suffered. Don't feel like you have to force yourself to remember everything right now. You're tired, I'm sure, and you need to rest. We can discuss this more later."

Katherine nodded. "Thank you," she said. Kaien was sure to give the blonde a look that made it clear she wasn't out of the woods yet. Far from it. And Katherine knew from here on out, she had to be conscientious of every word that passed from her lips, no matter how seemingly insignificant. One slip up would result in the whole mess getting dragged out in the open along with a dozen or so skeletons the girl had been hiding in her closet. She didn't want nor need to be poked around by child psychologists again; once was more than enough.

"Uhm, _Kōchō?_ " Katherine started hesitantly. She forced herself to ignore Kaname's eyes drilling holes in the side of her face and tried to get out the question that had been plaguing her since she woke up. Her heart felt like it was beating exceptionally fast and for a moment she felt a wave of dizziness pass over her.

"Yes?" Kaien brows lifted in question; while showcasing a bit of concern at the girl's paling complexion. "What is it?"

She was quick to shake off any lightheadedness and said. "Well, I was wondering if you've called my uncle yet?"

"I've left messages," he said, "but unfortunately I haven't been able to get through to him."

"I see," she said breathing out a silent sigh of relief. At least she wouldn't have to worry about Lucian calling her in a panic when he found out she was hurt. Not that he would be that concerned for her safety after finding out she was physically alright, but the girl would've had to listen to an hour-long lecture on putting herself in vacuously reckless situations which she honestly didn't want to hear. Especially since he would only be repeating the same monologue that had been running in her mind on a loop since this whole thing had started. "Well, I was wondering...could I try calling him?"

"Right now?"

"Yes. I know he's traveling on a plane, but—What time is it?" She paused and tried to crane her neck so she could see the clock hanging on the wall. If it was correct, it was about five minutes til four. She did a quick calculation in her head for the arrival time of Lucian's flight in Sri Lanka and the time difference between the two countries—Yes, his plane should've arrived at Katunayake airport thirty to forty-five minutes ago. "His plane should've landed already."

"I suppose that will be alright," Kaien said thoughtfully. "But I think you should get a few hours of rest first. Call him in the morning after you've had some time to recoup and get your bearings."

Katherine could see that the Headmaster wasn't going to budge on his stance; so she merely nodded. "Alright. That's fine. I'll call him in the morning then," she said. Besides, it wasn't like calling him now would get her out of this place any sooner than if she called him a few hours later. She could be patient as she was as of now relatively safe, inside, away from those damn woods and that creature.

Karin's expression softened considerably then, returning back to his friendly disposition. "Alright," he said, "now that all that unpleasantness is out of the way, why don't we talk about happier things? Are you hungry?"

Katherine felt herself relax at this question. Finally, something she could answer honestly. She was in actuality close to starving, having not eaten anything in preparation for the train ride knowing that she wouldn't have been able to keep it down. Now that she was given a minute to consciously evaluate herself and her needs she realized how ravenous she truly was. "Yes," she nodded.

As if on cue, her stomach let out a rather low and prolonged growl. Kaien let out an amused chuckle, while she grinned shamelessly up at him. "Well, alright then," he said, standing up from the chair. Then turning to Kaname, who had been still been blatantly staring at Katherine, although perhaps not as intensely as before, asked him to come with him as he left. The brunette stood from his chair almost gracefully like a ballerina moving from _en arrière_ to _en pointe_ in one fluid motion, brushing a non-existent piece of lint from his jacket.

"It was nice meeting you," Katherine told him.

Kaname looked at her with a small smile, which didn't meet his eyes. "Likewise," he said, however the way he said it sounded anything but friendly. The girl frowned, although she didn't comment on his cool behavior. It was clear that they wouldn't be becoming bosom-buddies anytime soon, but that was fine with her. She couldn't imagine spending any more time with someone so cool-headed and unreadable. Kaien turned back to her briefly to tell her that he would be back shortly with some food, then turning on his heels he and Kaname walked out of the infirmary.

* * *

The next several hours passed by quickly for Katherine. Kaien and Yuki ended up returning within fifteen-minutes of Kaien and Kaname's departure with a steaming bowl of piping hot _ramen_ that consisted of Chinese-style wheat noodles served in a beef broth seasoned with soy sauce and topped with sliced pork, green onions, and two fried eggs. It was delicious and Katherine made herself a mental note to try to get the recipe from the Headmaster's adopted-son, Zero-kun, when she found out he had been the one to make it. Yuki also brought with her a printed pajama set that was light pink with little white and black sheep on them, saying that she would be more comfortable in those as she helped Katherine change and explaining that the clothes she had been wearing were too bloody to be salvaged and had to be thrown away.

"Even my coat?" She had asked, thinking about the prescription bottle she had there. "I had some medication in one of the front pockets." It was then that Yuki had informed her that they hadn't found any prescription bottle in the coat, which in turn made Katherine begin to panic because there was only one place that she knew she would have lost it.

Fortunately for her, she hid her distress well and was able to get through the rest of Yuki and Kaien's visit without arising anymore suspicion. However, she had been unable to sleep for the remainder of the night and instead spent that time worrying over her possible connection to Gregerson, the thing that killed him, and whether or not the police would come calling for her in connection with his death. Only time would tell. She spent only one night in the infirmary and in the late-morning, Yuki and another boy with strange white hair and lilac-colored eyes arrived to escort her to the Headmaster's house on campus. Yuki introduced the boy to her as Zero Kiryu. Zero believe it or not was even more aloof than Kaname had been. He didn't speak a lot and he also seemed to be lacking that air of dignified politeness that the Night Class student-president had possessed, making him come off as almost hostile. The one thing in his favor, however, was the Zero also lacked Kaname's perceived entitlement and arrogance which was something that made Katherine like him a little better. If there was one thing she had little tolerance for, it was people who walked around with their noses in the air and a stick shoved so far up their own ass that one couldn't see the end of it.

Because of Katherine's unconventional enrollment in the academy, she wasn't technically a student—or more she wasn't a student who was supposed to live and stay in the dorm. She was more of a foreign exchange student living with her host family, The Kurosus, and attending the same school as Kaien's children. How Kaien explained it to her was that she would be attending classes just like everyone else, but she would sleep, eat, and live in the Headmaster's house. Also, there was the fact that by the time Katherine had applied to the school, not only were there not any open spots, but all the dorms had already been filled with full-tuition paying students. She actually preferred it this way as she hadn't been too keen on having to share close quarters with anyone but Lucian and with this arrangement she had her own guestroom away from everything where she could have space and privacy. Her room was currently filled with boxes that she had shipped over from New York along with four large black suitcases, a navy blue violin case, and her Jasport backpack that had been hanging on the back of a chair in front of the small study desk. She spent her morning looking for some suitable clothes to wear, trying to find a long-sleeve shirt that wasn't a pullover was her own personal hell.

Katherine had been in the middle of price-checking plane tickets on her laptop, when Kaien had called her into his private study. "Your uncle is on the phone for you," he had said and directed her down the hallway to the two french doors that led to the room in question.

That's where she was now, with a receiver of a black rotary phone that looked like it belonged in one of those old black and white Hollywood films held to her ear, and trying and failing to convince Lucian to send her to another boarding school—any boarding school. She had even went through the trouble of compiling a list of some other schools in Japan that weren't as affluent or prestigious as Cross academy but were still relatively in the area.

"It'll be better this way," she was saying. "I can live in Sapporo which is only a 3-hour train ride away and I'll still be close enough to Kaien that you wouldn't have to worry. Besides the city is safer anyways and there would be no risk of me getting lost out in the snow again there."

"Kit, no. We've discussed this _ad nauseam._ You're attending Cross academy and that's final," he cut her off.

"But—"

"I said no," his voice was firm. "You can't stay in a strange city all by yourself. It's not safe."

"I'm not a child," she argued. "I can look after myself. Besides you've left me alone in New York for weeks on end."

"This is different."

"How?"

"Because I never left you alone for more than two weeks by yourself. I was always able to call you everyday and Jae Eun was able to check up on you when I wasn't there," he said. There was a rustling over the line as if Lucian was shuffling around some papers and then a deep heavy sigh sounded in her ear. "What's wrong with Cross Academy anyways? You've barely been there six hours. What happened that you want to leave already?"

Katherine was leaning against the headmaster's large mahogany desk, twirling the phone cord around her fingers. She cast a nervous glance to the door and bit her lip. Should she tell him? Would he believe her? She hesitated, not really wanting to start dredging up the past. "You mean besides almost dying from hypothermia?"

"Yes. Besides that," he said.

The blonde let out a shaky sigh and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Luke…" she paused, "I-I don't want to tell you."

"Why?" His tone changed from curious to concerned in an instant. "You tell me everything else, Kit. We don't keep secrets from each other, you know that."

"I know. But this is…" she paused again, sorting out her thoughts. "Do you remember my dad? You remember how he was before—"

"Yes, yes. What of it?"

"—well, let's just say that I'm afraid that what happened to him is starting to happen to me," she said.

Lucian was silent suddenly, then slowly he asked. "What do you mean exactly?"

"I don't know," she said. "I don't know what's happening. But I saw something out there…"

"In the woods?" Lucian tone was confused. "Kaien told me you had no memory of what happened."

"I lied," she confessed. "I just—I didn't know how to explain it. I didn't know if it was real or not. It was too horrible; that-that _thing_. It wasn't—"

"Okay, okay. Stop right there," he told her. "Don't say anything else. Now, I'm going to ask you something and I want you to answer me candidly. Did anyone else see it? Was there anyone with you in those woods?"

Katherine shook her head. Besides Gregerson, she was the only one to have seen it. But he was dead and wouldn't be any help in collaborating her story. "No. No, it was just me," she said.

"Then forget it ever happened."

"But—"

"No listen to me, Kit," he cut her off again. "If there was no one there, there's no knowing if what you saw was real or imaginary. If you start telling people what you saw, there's going to be questions, psychologists, police just like before."

"I know. That's why I didn't say anything," she said.

"Good. It'll be best to keep it that way," he said, then added almost forlornly. "Just try to be a kid, okay?"

Katherine let out a rather unladylike snort, standing up and turning to fiddle with the Headmaster's Newtons Cradle he had sitting on his desk. She picked up one of the small metal balls and let it drop against the others; launching the fifth ball up in the air, before it crash back down and the kinetic energy traveled back to the first, repeating the cycle again and again filling the room with a steady _clack-clack-clack_. "You make it sound like I'm an alien," she said.

Lucian laughed, humorously. "You might as well be. You have no friends or viable social skills," he said.

"I have friends!" Her expression changed to one of mock outrage at the accusation.

"One and Jae Eun doesn't count," he said. "She's thirty years older than you. You don't have any friends your own age. In fact, you don't even talk to people your own age."

"Well can you blame me? Most people my age are idiots. This one kid started talking to me at a Barnes & Noble while I was skimming through a copy of _Battle Royale_ and he said—no joke— 'Ya know that's a rip-off of the _Hunger Games.'_ I swear I lost about ten IQ-points right there." She could hear him trying to muffle his laughter into his fist as he shifted the phone away from his mouth. "It's not funny, Luke!"

"I can just picture your face," he laughed. "Did you correct him?"

"No, you can't corrected that level of stupid," she said. "And what made it worse—No, listen—What made it worse was that he had actually read the book. He knew exactly how Kiriyama died, going so far as to even quote of some of the dialogue, and yet still he never bothered to look at the publication date and the fact that it was published almost ten years before the _Hunger Games_."

"Well, the education system in the States is subpar at best," he reminded her. "I'm surprised he even read it. Godknows books aren't being as pushed on kids as they used to be. Now all they seemed to read are _BuzzFeed_ and _Cracked-dot-com_ articles."

Katherine nodded in agreement, even though she knew he couldn't see her. "Don't forget _Twilight,_ " she added and Lucian let out an rather demoralized groan.

"Please, don't remind me of those books," he said. "They've single handedly ruined the whole vampire genre. Real vampires don't sparkle."

"And what exactly are real vampires? I think it's a little presumptuous to assume anything about fictional creatures," Katherine shrugged her shoulders, adjusting the phone to her other ear. She sat down on one of the padded armchair in front of Kaien's desk, tucking her socked-clad feet under her, then propped her elbow up on the armrest as she cradled the phone to her ear. "It's Stephenie Meyer's wank-fantasy. If she wants to make them into shiny disco balls of diamonds, then she can. At least she managed to turn her delusional fetishes into something she made money off of. My problem with them is that they're so misogynistic. Bella has less personality than a wet paper towel and Edward is a psychotic douchebag— _Geez, I'm so over brooding male leads that act like total dickwads and borderline stalkers, but it's all okay because they have a tragic backstory_. We should just call a spade a spade, and if they act like an asshole then they're an asshole."

"I'm right there with you. The world would be a much better place if everyone just said what they were thinking," Lucian said. "However, the real world isn't always so straightforward. People rarely say what they really feel in any given situation. They lie because it's easier, because sometimes the truth isn't what people want to hear, or because who they really are deep down is selfish, ugly, conceited and if they showed that side to people then the world would reject them…" His voice trailed off, leaving that sentence ringing in her ears.

Katherine let the silence wash over her for several seconds. Digesting what he was saying or more what he was not saying in so many words. She had the sneaking suspicion that he knew she was leaving things out of her story—No, she was sure that he knew. He knew her better than anyone. She was a fool to think that he wouldn't still be able to read her over the phone. "Luke?"

"Mhm?" He hummed absentmindedly, but she knew that his attention was focused solely on her and what she was about to say. She let out a sigh and frowned, adjusting her position in the chair. He didn't push her to talk. He didn't try to rush to hang up the phone. He simply sat, his breaths steady in her ear, and waited for her to speak.

When Katherine finally spoke, her voice had softened almost to a whisper. "Do you think my parents would've wanted me to go to this school?" She asked.

"I couldn't say," he said. "But I know they would've wanted you to have friends. They would've wanted you to have compassion for other people. Even the idiot ones."

The silence that proceeded that statement was a heavy one. So many things were left unspoken in that short span of time, and yet the feelings behind those silent words rang loud and clear between the two of them. "I miss them," she whispered those words like they were a great secret between the both of them. "I can't even really remember their faces or their voices, but I still...I still miss them. You know it's almost been ten years to the day?"

"...yeah. I miss them too," he sighed. "Look Kit, I'm gonna be going radio-silent for the next several weeks and I need you to do something for me while you're there."

"What is it?"

"There's a key on your key ring. It goes to a padlock on a storage unit in Sapporo. The place is called L Storage. I need you to go there sometime, get something out, and bring it to an address for me in Niseko."

"What do you need me to get?" She asked leaning forward to snatch a pen and paper off the headmaster's desk. "And what's the address?"

He told her address and she wrote it down, double checking to make sure that she had gotten it correct. "It's nothing too big," he said. "It's a wooden box about eight-inches long, four-inches wide, and six- inches tall. It has a bunch of runic carvings on the outside and a silver latch. I need you to take the box—only that box—and deliver it to an old friend of mine. This is very important, under no circumstances are you to open that box and look inside."

Katherine frowned at the strange request. "Why?"

"Just promise me, Kit," Lucian said firmly. "What's inside is nothing for you to concern yourself with."

"Okay, I promise." She tore off the sticky note and folded it a couple times before tucking it into the front pocket of her jeans. "Is there a particular time you need this done?"

"No," he said. "But it would be better to do it sooner rather than later." There was some more shuffling over the line, then a woman's voice had called out to Lucian in another language that Katherine couldn't understand. Lucian said something back before turning his attention back to their conversation. "I have to go," he told her. "Are you going to be okay?"

"Pssh," Katherine said, "I'll be fine. Don't worry."

"I'll always worry about you. It's my job," he said. "Just look out for yourself, okay? And try to stay out of trouble. No more late night hikes through the forest."

"Believe me, I'm not gonna be doing that anytime soon," she said.

"Good." The woman's voice called out to him again and Lucian sighed; exasperated. " _Geez, she's impatient._ Bye, Kit. Love you."

"Love you too," she said. "You'll be careful."

She could feel him grinning over the phone. "Always am," he said, then without further to do the line went dead as he hung up. Katherine sat listening to the dial tone for a couple seconds then slowly put the receiver back on the hook. She stood up, shaking out the numbness in her feet, lean forward and stopped the Newtons Cradle from making any more noise. She let out a heavy sigh, adjusted the sleeve of her shirt so that it covered the bandages, and told herself a little white lie.

 _Everything is gonna be okay. It'll all work out,_ she thought to herself despite not believing it at all.

* * *

 **Author's Note:**

Here's chapter 2! I'm actually proud of how fast I was able to get this one out. I have at least the next four chapters outlined so far, but I'm still chugging away at it. Although, I'm thinking that I'm probably not going to stick to my 30 chapters quota (I'll probably end up going over it. Let's be honest, I'm very long-winded.) Thank you to everyone who's followed, favorited, and reviewed this story so far. You guys are awesome!


	3. AN:Hiatus

DEAR READER,

I know I haven't been updating for awhile now. And I've gotten messages inquiring as to why and encouraging me to keep writing—to which I'm grateful, don't get me wrong-So it's with a heavy heart that I have to announce that for the foreseeable future I will be unable to update any of my fics. In the interest of not airing all my dirty laundry online, all you need to know I that I just escaped a toxic relationship and as a result I'm currently homeless, jobless, no car, and everything I own can fit into one suitcase. I've lost the majority of all my personal belongings, which includes my laptop unfortunately, however good news since I use Google Docs all of the fics I've been working on are not lost. Bad news considering the clusterf*ck that is my life, I will not have the time or energy to dedicate to writing. So while I'm getting back on my feet I will have to set my priorities on myself and put my writing on the back burner until I'm in a more stable position.

Thank you for being so understanding and patient with me through this time. I really do appreciate it,

INSANITY-BRILLIANCE


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